Menu

Guyyyyyys, I’m so excited! I put up the prints from the Doom and Gloom series for sale in my Etsy store as well as a couple favorites that I’ve never sold before online. I’ve only sold the Romeo and Juliet print above and a couple other prints during art walks so far and it’s sold out super quick, so fingers crossed that I’ll have enough.

To celebrate, you can use coupon code NEWSHOP for 10% off your order until Apr 18, 2017 in my shop. I’m working on a new print, tentatively titles Headphones girl (you can see the process here) so I’d love to send these to new homes so I can make room for new prints. Let me know what you think of the new look!

I love drawing outside! Yesterday, we took advantage of the sunshine in Riverside and wend down to UCR Botanic Gardens. The gardens are not super busy, there’s plenty of space, and it has this sort of relaxing hideaway type atmosphere so it’s easily of my favorite places to visit. Some flowers are just starting to bloom and it was so lush and green – my brain just goes on vacation when I’m there.

I drew some not quite in bloom lilac flowers and a very colorful rose. To draw outdoors, all I brought with me were sketching supplies: 2 pencils, 2 erasers, a sharpener, and a sketchbook. You don’t really need much else. If you want the sketch to look more finished, simply take a reference photo and fill in the colors later at home. What’s your favorite (outdoor!) place to draw? Let me know in the comments!

This week I wanted to share my Moleskin watercolor sketchbooks and some thoughts on sketchbooks in general. Quick backstory – In college, I had a teacher who required us to keep sketchbooks for a painting class. At first, it was a pain to keep up with working daily in a sketchbook but over the semester it became a habit for which I am forever grateful now.

In addition to seeing how your art evolves through practice, the feeling of accomplishment from routine drawing/painting is so satisfying and almost addictive. I feel like it moves me forward just a little bit every time I pick up a pencil and doodle something. A sketchbook can be messy, very experimental, and deeply personal. A drawing in a sketchbook doesn’t have to look finished, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s like someone has given me permission to explore without many limits. The exploration that happens inside a sketchbook doesn’t need to produce results but it will anyway (if you keep at it) over time.

In these sketchbooks, you’ll see a lot of flowers, characters and some early sketches of the Doom and Bloom series. You won’t see many thumbnails here because I really wanted to take advantage of the watercolor paper. I do have another sketchbook where I thumbnail but it’s not complete yet. My hope is that this inspires your own practice. Don’t be afraid of the blank pages of your sketchbook!